Gozo's economy needs to diversify but also maintain the characteristics that make it beautiful and unique, Robert Abela has said.

The prime minister said he wanted Malta's sister island to be a "key driver" in the country's economic growth.

Addressing a cabinet meeting at the Gozo Innovation Hub in Xewkija, Abela said the island should be a leader on green energies.  

“I see a future where Gozo would be a leader in the use of renewable energy, a future where Gozitan enterprises are pioneers in the adoption of new technologies in favour of the environment, a future where commercial and industrial spaces are dominated by green and not by grey,” he said.

He said Gozo could not depend solely on the public sector and tourism and that he would continue to work to improve connectivity between the islands. 

The island should not depend on day trippers, he said but on quality tourism. Gozo was an island where agriculture and fisheries fused in tourism opportunities offered young people a quality future.

He said that since 2013, the country had seen an average economic growth of 9.2 per cent annually, and that employment had increased by an extra 4,100 people.

He said government measures had helped protect Gozo during the pandemic - so that the relative increase in the number of those registering for employment was a third of that in Malta.

Gozitan businesses in the tourism sector had benefitted greatly from the government-induced measures aimed to encourage domestic consumption, especially through the vouchers.

Other enterprises in other sectors were given double the assistance given to enterprises operating from Malta, he said.

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